


Skin and Bones, Heart and Souls

by lacewing



Category: Underfell - Fandom, Undertale (Video Game), underswap
Genre: Again if anyone has tag suggestions for any of my stories, I never know what to put in this space, Junkster, Multi, Other, Underfell Papyrus, Underfell Sans, Underswap Papyrus, Underswap Sans
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-20
Updated: 2017-02-23
Packaged: 2018-09-25 21:44:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 12,430
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9846923
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lacewing/pseuds/lacewing
Summary: It was a fishy ad for a job but well someone needed work.To which a human becomes the test subject and part-time lab assistant for skeletons





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Six Skeletons, One Maid](https://archiveofourown.org/works/7124200) by [RaccoonSinQueen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RaccoonSinQueen/pseuds/RaccoonSinQueen). 



> This was inspired by the 6 skeletons one maid set up by RaccoonSinQueen  
> But don't expect more of the same. I'm not as fond of anime tropes

Skin and Bones, Heart and Souls

-0-

“I really dislike the blue stuff.” The human complained sagging back away from the Dr who sighed and rubbed his temples. 

“Leena, stop being a child and take the medicine, I cannot get a proper reading here until you do.” Dr W.D. Gaster said as he adjusted his devices. 

The human sniffed at the substance, she stared at him distrustingly. 

“Take it, and cooperate for the rest of this exam and I will give you a bonus” he promised her.

She grabbed the container he’d set beside her on the table and downed it like a trooper. 

Gaster shook his head with a tired amusement. That did tend to work when she was being belligerent. The brown haired girl turned slightly pale and kind of green around the edges. Before she managed a small burp and taking a few breaths she pulled a face and sat quietly. He got back to his readings, making them as fast as he could incase the human was sick after all. It would throw off this set of readings, again, if she was ill. 

They had been three days at this with him trying to get these particular readings.

“And… done” he said with deep satisfaction.

The girl was off the table and through the doorway. Diving past Fell Sans, who barely dodged the human as she shot past him and to the small water closet outside Gaster’s Lab.

They could both hear the coughing gags as her body rejected the solution that she had to take for Gaster to get the readings he needed.  
“So, another fail?” Fell raised a boney brow at Gaster who shook his head as he looked at his computer screen. 

“No, this time we managed to get the readings. So hopefully I shall not need to repeat this part of the experiment again.”

Fell snorted “Good, because I think if she pukes in my brother’s boots again he’s going to kill something. Likely you.” 

Gaster snickered “I said I would replace them.” He commented making notes on a separate piece of paper of the numbers he was looking at on his screen.

Fell gave a slight wince of sympathy for the girl who was praying away her sins to the porcelain goddess down the hall at a particularly violent sounding wretch. “Eh, he just likes finding something to bitch about. They cleaned up well enough, they still have an interesting pong about them, but that will likely fade given a few more days.” He shrugged “So you done with her for the day?” 

“Yes, when she’s feeling better she’s welcome to leave anytime. I shouldn’t need her again until tomorrow.” He said. 

“Hmm, perhaps she can give me a hand with something…” he started.

Gaster turned and looked askance at the other skeleton “She’s mine Fell,”

The other started to sweat under that gaze and cleared his throat “yeah, well it not like I gotta make her drink any goop, just wanted her to look at a few pictures.” 

He hummed then went back to his work “Only if she agrees, and you have to pay her a bonus, after all she’s my test subject, not yours.” 

“Ah come on here! Throw a guy a bone!”

“Find your own test subject then.” 

Fell grumped “Not like you didn’t snag this one the moment she walked through the door. Ain’t none of the rest of us got to even interview her before you where feeding her weird shit.” 

“Perhaps you should put out a better solicitation.” He told him. “I’m surprised anyone answered that prior one at all.” 

“We had a word limit!” Fell complained. 

“Yes and it still looked like you are asking for a prostitute. It took some calming down on my part to assure her that she wasn’t going to be signing on for anything of THAT sort.” Gaster said and set his notes down looking at Fell seriously “Aside from the fact I was likely the only one of us willing to get her into any form of health before starting her on this.” He indicated his lab. 

Fell shoved his hands in his pockets “I’m sure Paps or the blueberry would have been thrilled to nurse her to full health.” He shrugged. “Not like any of mine or those other two’s experiments would have her heaving her guts on a semi regular basis.” 

The scientist sighed and stood up, getting a canned drink from the mini frig he kept in his lab, walking past Fell to the quarter bath knocking on the door. “Ms Leena, I have the beverage that should settle your stomach.” 

There was a slight moan and the door opened, he had to look down at the girl was seated on the floor looking absolutely miserable “That bonus had better be worth it.” She rasped and held her hand out for the can. He popped the tab for her before handing it to her.

It was a vitamin rich fruit juice he developed for situations like these. Fell’s brother brewed it and even canned it for him. After she tipped it back and drank until a few droplets were falling down her damp neck. He gave a glance back at Fell who ripped his eyes off the girl and was quickly inspecting the ceiling. Gaster leaned over grabbing a hand towel and rinsing it in the sink outside the water closet. He knelt down and started dabbing her face “I have more than enough data for the rest of the day, why don’t you take a breather and then head home?” he told her.

“Hey!” Fell said. Gaster rolled his eyes.

“Or rest and accept a bonus from Fell, he seems to want you to look at some pictures.”

“… pictures aren’t so hard.” She said “can I still rest?” her voice sounded drained. 

Gaster glanced back at Fell who rocked a moment on his feet before giving a one shoulder shrug “eh, I could use a bite to eat anyway. I can wait an hour or two.” 

Leena nodded then “ok.” 

Gaster did pick the human up, cradling her in his long arms. He carried her up to the main floor. The multi floored manor home had a good and partially isolated location, made it perfect for their work. Also meant it had more than enough space for seven very dissimilar people.   
“What in the delta did you do to her this time?” the irritated voice came from the direction of the stairs and Gaster didn’t bother replying, taking the girl to the den and tv room. No one was currently there, so setting her up on the couch with a blanket, pillow, remote and another of the fruit drinks to finish settling her stomach he heard Fell replying to the scathing voice of his brother.

“He had her drink the blue stuff again, Boss.”

“Again? Last time she puked in my boots Sans! I’m STILL trying to get the smell out!” Edge was a tall harsh figure dressed in black turtleneck and pants, who would have been far more dramatic without the floral kerchief tied to his head and the frilly apron around his waist. Seemed he was doing some of Papyrus’ chores as those were part of ‘Papy’s ultimate cleaning kit!’ 

“She managed to hold herself together for the entirety of the reading this time.” Gaster said as he came back into the main foyer, folding his hand behind him lightly. Fingers tapping his elbows. “And she is drinking those juices I developed to keep her from being quite so, ill.”   
Edge glared at the scientist and gave a humph before he marched off, the sharp march of the click of his wide heeled boots on the tiles of the floor as he went off picking up the little shower caddy that was converted to hold cleaning supplies. 

Have to say one thing for him, despite looking ridiculous he still made that outfit look intimidating. Fell sighed and rubbed the back of his skull “I think I’ll go down to town.” He decided.

Gaster sighed “You really shouldn’t keep doing that, you know how dangerous it is, what happens if...”

Fell cut him off “We can’t go living in fear all the fucking time Doc. Besides, if I want a pizza I am going to have to go down there anyway.” He shrugged.

Gaster made a displeased sound, but Fell was already walking for the door “Later.” He saluted and when he opened the door, he stepped through and was gone before the door closed behind him having not even stepped onto the front stoop. 

The scientist sighed gustily and went off back to his lab, the Fells and their posturing! 

Leena flipped channels until something vaguely educational came on. Then she just let herself go fuzzy around the edges sipping at the fruit drink until it started tasting funny. Which was usually a good sign that she didn’t need it anymore, the can was almost empty but she sat it on the floor next to the couch where it wouldn’t get accidently kicked. Cuddling down into the pillow and blanket she was fairly sure she dozed off as it seemed there was a new program on, and someone leaning over the couch. Long boney fingers brushing through her hair. Shifting to look up she saw the orange hoodie wearing Stretch who had the stick of a lollipop sticking out between his teeth “You look miserable.” He stated the obvious. 

“No jokes, please” she begged, not sure if her head could handle some of the groaners he liked to tell. He chuckled at her instead. The human reached up blanket and all, to cover his teeth. “No” she stated as he outright laughed at her now. 

When she dropped her hand because she was tired he was still chuckling “So what he do this time?” he asked her.

“Blue grossness.” She responded.

“Again? So, should I get another pair of Edge’s boots for you?” he asked the last just a little too eagerly.

She groaned, “God no, I have that fruit juice stuff, it’s helping. He got his scan this time so hopefully I won’t ever have to look at another container of that crap again.” 

“Swear jar.” Stretch said with amusement.

Leena gave him a dirty look and flipped him off, but dug in her pant pockets and held up a couple bills that he took “A few more bucks and we’ll have enough for Chinese this weekend” he said.

“Not pizza?” she asked him.

“Naaa, we’ve done pizza the last two weekends in a row, I say something different. There’s a new place down near where the Good Will use to be.” 

“Use to be? When it disappear?” she half sat up, but fell back into her pillow with a groan. Ok, too dizzy yet. Blug, what the hell was in that blue shit anyway?

“Hmm, yesterday I think. Fell would know the time better, he’s the one keeping an eye on that stuff.” He moved around the couch, shifting her legs to sit on the other end and let her feet rest on his lap. It was boney and not the most comfortable but she settled away as his bones were warm and soaked into her. 

It was a weird thing as she came to be in this place longer she found out a few things, but it told her nothing of what they were doing. Gaster experimented and often she was somehow part of it. Leena didn’t really know how or why, but it paid and that kept a roof over her head and her old cat fed. A few sick days were worth the fact that she was currently in the best health of her life. When she first came to this place, following a rather sketchy looking ad someone copy and pasted to a forum, she had no idea what to expect. It had both sounded and did not sound legit in anyway. It had taken her nearly a week to even attempt coming up to the address, and then it took her the entire day of waffling between town and the front gates for her to finally get the courage to get to the door. 

It was almost dark before she rang the doorbell. 

Leena had not expected the rather short and child looking skeleton monster who answered the door, staring at her as if he was sure she had the wrong place. A lot of different things could have been at the address, but one of the monster race was the last thing she had expected to meet at all. Monsters were not that common yet in her area, there were a couple small businesses popping up around downtown that were monster owned, and an icecream truck that stopped near her house once in awhile that was owned by a blue bunny monster. 

In response to the skeleton’s disbelief (how did one get so much expression from a skull?) Leena had been wondering if she did have the wrong place at that moment herself. But she steeled herself, showed the copy of the ad she’d made down at the library, and watched literal blue stars form in the dark sockets of the tiny skeleton before he took off screaming into the house. Leaving her standing very confused at the doorway.

But Gaster came (and nearly sent her noping for town again with his dark clothing, long limbs and pale face.) She nervously answered a few simple questions and was hired on the spot. Her first assignment for the day had been a physical and meeting the rest of the household.   
Some of the other guys also did experiments as well and the rest maintained the house. It was still weird how she came to be working as a quasi science experiment with seven monsters, six of whom where skeletons and one being … a walking representation of a creepy pasta.   
Leena only officially worked for Dr Gaster, and while she knew the others were doing experiments, she didn’t have to do anything for them because they were not her boss. If they wanted her services they had to hire them, but only if Gaster approved the particular request, and she agreed to do it. 

Still they didn’t have to tell her what they were doing either or why they needed her. So she really had no idea what everyone was up to. Unless she was invited, she didn’t go into anyone’s rooms or personal labs or offices. She didn’t have to know all the details of what they were doing to be a test subject. Although there were some serious likely legality issues with this whole set up, especially with the weird shit Dr Slender kept making her drink that uncommonly left her feeling sick. Leena found she couldn’t really complain. They did treat her well, they asked before doing anything. Even the grumpy ones like Edge or Fell treated her kindly. Fell, did not always treat her respectfully, he was a bit of a perv, and had a thing for incredibly vulgar and dark humor. Which often left her feeling uncomfortable, but he was always willing to sneak her an extra slice of pizza or give her a ride home if she found one of Gaster’s experiments too much to handle. 

Edge on the other hand tended to just ignore her, but he do little things, like giving her a snack around lunch time without being asked, or if she was at the house through dinner because of something Gaster was doing she always found there was a plate kept for her to eat before going home. Once when an experiment went wrong and her clothing ended up the casualty, he was the one that found her something to wear. When she came in the next day her things were cleaned and even mended. 

Leena really needed to figure out a good apology for his shoes... 

He was the hardest of the group to get to know very well. She knew that he was Fell’s younger brother and that he demanded order, he was a perfectionist and sometimes when the others couldn’t figure something out, or the pieces just didn’t seem to fit they would take a ream of papers and shove them in his hands to look over. He would study them for a bit before pointing something out and she swore it was like a light bulb would go off and they were off again. 

He seldom spoke to her more than to tell her to do something (“Get out of my way you gormless waste of matter!” Or her personal favorite “Are you done? I have more important things to do than watch you all day.”) And that despite him being fond of insults, he was not fond of cursing. The swear jar was his idea actually. Although it was Papyrus who came up with the idea of spending the money collected in it at the end of the week on a household treat. Usually pizza and a movie from Redbox. 

She grinned a bit to herself into her pillow, Stretch gotten a hold of the remote and was channel surfing. Leena wasn’t paying much attention just sort of floating along as she was feeling less sick, but more sleepy. Papyrus was very likely the youngest of the skeletons in residence, and second in terms of most energy. He was in charge of the bulk of the household cleaning. (Even if it seemed Edge often went after him and would clean again if it wasn’t to his personal satisfaction.) He also seemed to be the one in charge of maintaining the household defenses. He took her around once with him while he was checking (Calibrating he called it) some of his traps and puzzles he used to make sure that if someone was coming up to the house it would be by the front gate. They were actually pretty clever and he beamed as she told him so. 

He also gave some of the best hugs for a guy who was all bone. If her back was feeling stiff and he happened by she could just open her arms and he would be willing to pause in whatever he was doing just to give her a big bone popping (and backache relieving) hug. He also had a tendency of filling out the space of whatever room he was in. With his personality, (big) or his voice, (also big) or just making sure everyone around him was happy. (his heart had to be the biggest part of him.) 

Which thinking of Papyrus brought her to his brother. Sans, was difficult. From all appearances he was a lazy short chubby guy who liked bad knock knock jokes and worse puns. He also seemed to subsist on coffee and hot dogs. As well as pure will alone as far as she could tell. He needed her the least of the ‘science’ oriented members of the house hold. Most she remembered doing for him was helping him find a page of notes he lost somewhere in his room. She found it in the weird trash tornado in the corner of his room, how one managed to twist air into a constant moving force inside a bedroom she had no idea, but it was fun to toss balled up socks into. Or once with Blue, Stretch’s brother, they filled it with glitter and confetti. Sans had actually seemed amused by that, and now sometimes if she was quick to peek before he closed his door, she could see all sorts of interesting things spinning around in his tornado. 

Maybe after thinking about it, it was Sans who was the one she knew least about. 

But from least known to most known, Blue had to be the skeleton she’d gotten to know best outside her Boss. He mostly took care of outdoor maintenance where his energy couldn’t hurt more than a flower bed or two. Apparently he was older than Stretch, which shocked her when she found out. He seemed so much younger. Someone who kept going until he collapsed, she’d found him periodically napping in some odd places if he managed to tire himself out. He never slept long though, and ten to twenty minutes later he would be up again. According to the others he was like this at night as well. 

Aside from the sheer levels of noise, laughter and hyper activity he seemed to, like Papyrus, enjoy puzzles, games, and his favorite hobby of stalking Leena through the house in a game of ‘capture the human’. If he managed to catch her she would find herself carried off (literately, he would just hold her above his head like a prized toy and run off giggling madly, how he managed this with her being a good twice his size and several times his mass…)and she’d find herself stuck in a game or helping him with some project until she was ‘rescued’. 

Sometimes she would be rescued by Dr Gaster if he needed her for something, usually it would be by Blue’s brother, Stretch. Another of the science types, even if she saw him spending more of his time sleeping than working. She knew he did work though, as he once asked her for an afternoon, not to poke her or make her do anything weird. He was just exhausted and needed a second pair of eyes to make sure he wasn’t missing any numbers between two lists. Apparently it hadn’t been a challenging enough task to interest Edge, so he hired her. 

He liked to talk about his brother a lot. She could tell though that he worried about him. She knew nothing as to why they were the way they were, but Leena was able to put enough together to get the impression that Blue didn’t use to be like this. That something happened and whatever it was had been fairly traumatic for the brothers. Neither talked about it, Stretch would get sullen and snappish if she tried to bring it up and Blue? He didn’t even seem to remember, though he was aware that he didn’t use to be like he was now. 

It frustrated him, but he just smiled and kept right on going. 

Then of course there was Leena’s boss, Dr Gaster, or as she once slipped and called him Dr Slender in hearing range of Fell and Stretch.  
The two have not let him live down her creepy pasta reference and took joy in calling him Doc Slender every chance they could.   
He was a quiet dignified sort, who also had a junk food addiction and a tendency towards sarcasm. She knew of his ‘junk drawer’ in his lab where he kept chips and various other snacks. According to Blue there was a super secret stash of really fancy chocolates in his room somewhere, no one has of yet been able to find. They knew he had a stash somewhere though because he was often seen randomly with a piece or two of truffles or other confectionary that did not come from his junk drawer. 

Leena had a deal with Blue to split the stash if they ever could locate it. 

She glanced up at the sound of a snore and saw that Stretch was snoozing, his head down on the fleece of his hoodie and the remote half limp in his fingers resting over her legs, his other hand holding one of her feet through the blanket, his thumb shifting along the arch of her foot. 

She was feeling better, but Fell wasn’t back yet, she decided just to nap a bit longer. 

When Fell came in he found Stretch half curled against one side of the couch with an arm over the human’s legs, some random news feed was on, but it was obvious neither were paying attention as they were both sound asleep. The girl with her face smashed firmly into a pillow that they kept in the hall closet for her and the blanket half falling off her form. Fell shoved the last bite of the pizza into his mouth that he’d polished off on his way home from town and licked his phalanges. It was running late, he’d gotten distracted. She would normally be well on her way home by this point. 

Well she did promise to help him out, he just had a few more things for her to look at now. 

He walked over and reached out and shook her shoulder. Leena blinked blurrily and then up at him “... what time is it?”

“Time for you to earn that bonus, Doll” he responded and she pulled a face at him, but managed to extract her feet from Stretch without waking him and got off the couch, straightening her clothing before she quietly followed the other skeleton. 

He knew she was only being so quiet right now because she was still half asleep. Else she’d be asking him questions or more than likely, talking back at him, when she didn’t like the answers he gave to her questions. Which well, made Fell more likely to be a pill and give her bad answers just so he could get her to puff her cheeks out at him and glare before she said something smart assed. Fell felt this human was easily the most entertaining thing in the house. 

He went down to the small lab/office of his. It was at the end of the hall past the library on the main floor. Inside he just sort of kicked some papers lazily off a stool for her to sit on while he sat down in his own chair at the desk gathering up photos, He pulled out his phone from his pocket and plugged the smart device up to his printer adding some new ones to the pile. 

Once he had those he turned back to her “Right, so, look through these and tell me if you know them. Recognize them or have heard of them.” He said holding out a pile of pictures to her.

She took the print outs of the pictures and started looking through them. “This is my place.” She started at the top, why did he want her to look at the outside of her own house? “This better not be more pictures of my place and you being a creepy stalker.”

He snorted “Doll, why stalk you at your home when I can just get ya here?” he pointed out “Be more comfortable too,” he wiggled a brow “my bed is nice and soft.” He half purred.

She just flicked the balled up picture of her house at him.

Under that was a picture of the grocery, a pizza place she knew he liked to go to. A game store, a statue from the park, so far nothing she didn’t know. 

Then there was a shot of a bar, she couldn’t quite read the sign that well started with “Gr-“ and after that was another shot of a place she didn’t know. The odd looking bakery use to be near down town and the municipal district if she was recognizing the surrounding businesses correctly. She was familiar with the area but never seen this place. 

After that were more such shots. She spotted the Goodwill though, the one that Stretch told her was missing. “I know this one!” she said showing him the shot “When did it go missing?” she asked and he blinked at her.

“Who told you that?”

“Stretch. He said it went missing yesterday.” 

He just hummed and made a note, he looked a little irritated. She finished the photos and felt really conflicted.

There were places in there she knew like her house which was in place or like the Good Will which was no longer there, but not sure when they went missing, other things she never knew existed and there were several she felt she SHOULD know. The further along she went the more sure she was. Leena was positive that she should know many of the places in the photos. 

He’d made a few notes and then seemed satisfied enough with the results. She was staring at him.

“What, find my face that irresistible babe?” he said his grin wide and the gold tooth glinting in the dimmer lighting of his office, and she just rolled her eyes at him.

“You wish.” She huffed “So, what was this about?”

“Just my personal project, your part done for now,” he waved her off and stood up “So, unless you plan on staying the night, and I can so offer you a bed, doll,” he suggested.

“Two words. Fuck. No.” and she held up a dollar for the swear jar, which cracked him up.

“Eh, I ain’t gonna tell no one if you use a bit of language in my spaces. If anything I’d like to get you shouting a few things more than that.” He grinned.

“… you are disgusting Fell.”

“Aw, you’re making me blush babe.” 

“I’m going home now.” She told him.

“Need a ride?”

“Not with you in this mood. I’ll be hearing all about what else I can ride all the way.” She flipped him off and he laughed. It wasn’t one of his ‘evil’ laughs, or cackles, but one of his honest she managed to hit his funny bone belly laughs. Which always surprised her, because it was adorable, how he would bite his red tongue and just chortle until he had tears threatening to spill from the sides of his eye sockets. It was almost enough to make her forgive him for his crude come ons.

Almost. 

“Right Babe, I won’t hit on you, I promise” he said “Just take you home. Have you eaten?” he asked her.

She shook her head and made a face “Haven’t wanted to.” She responded “I’m still a bit queasy from the blue shit bombs Gaster fed me.” 

He chuckled again “I can respect that, come on, I’ll get you home.”

She snorted “You just like driving my car.”

“No like the Boss lets me touch his.” He shrugged. 

“Yeah duh, seriously a 1970’s thunderbird? If I had one of those I would chop off the fingers of anyone even thinking of grazing it!” Both Papyrus and Edge had great tastes in cars and both where equally protective of them. She heard that Papyrus use to be more willing to let people barrow his car, until Stretch got into a fender bender with it. After he got it repaired he didn’t let anyone near it again. 

Leena’s car was a little 80’s model she found some time ago in someone’s yard. A little beat up (and one of the doors didn’t even match in color the rest of the car,) but it was a Mercedes, and was a little tank. It also didn’t get too bad of gas mileage for something that old. Very likely because it was so small.

She knew Fell just really wanted to see how fast he could push the little rust bucket. Leena wouldn’t let him, so he just settled for stealing her keys and driving her around whenever he got the chance to since thanks to Stretch all convertible rights were revoked for everyone by Papyrus. 

It was a quiet twenty minute drive to her house. Leena spent it staring out the window as Fell half watched her out of the corner of his eye socket. He seemed to want to say something, instead he just stayed silent until they reached her house, which point he turned off the car and tossed her the keys before he got out and shoved his hands into his pockets, “Later babe” he said as he started off door the road.  
He disappeared from view before he reached the mailboxes at the end of the drive. 

Leena’s place was a tiny cabin tucked away among a bunch of trees and a couple other such cabins off from the road. A kind of place that often had delivery guys calling to figure out where she was after driving by the half hidden drive to the little collection of cabins. The main part of her place was just a box with a porch. There was a small side addition that now housed the single bedroom that had been done some years before she started renting the place. The paneling was white but dingy and grey, parts falling off to reveal that it was likely once a green house under all the panels. The roof was more moss than shingles. But it stayed cool in the summer and wasn’t too much of a nightmare to heat in the winter. 

She opened the door and was greeted by her aging cat. The huge fat black and white tom demanded food as she was late. Leena walked into the sparse kitchen, a paper plate and a can of wet food she dumped it there and put it down for the cat to munch his way through. A cup of water in the microwave and she seeped a bag of tea. Edge would likely call this some sort of heresy, but it was cheap tea, that didn’t taste nearly as good as anything served over at the skeleton household. 

She only drank it because it was warm, and it made the house feel a little less, cold. 

With a sigh she went and took a shower, then crawled into a bed that was far too big for just one person.   
-0-


	2. chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> interacting with more skeletons.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to Raven Maniac for the puns. Dark humor? Sarcasm? yeah I can do that, but my pun game is just not up for the challenge.

Skin and Bones, Heart and Souls

Chapter 2

-0-

Morning came and five minutes before her alarm went off, she had a huge face full of fluffy cat cutting off her air supply.

“ack!” Leena managed to wake up enough to lift up the feline who was purring and staring at her with half lidded eyes “I would have been up soon cat! I’ll feed you geeze.” She sighed at the fluffy asshole and got up grabbing her house coat. The weather was turning colder and while the space heater cut the chill in the air, she would need the fireplace for a proper warmth.

But because she needed to be up at the manor in about an hour, there was not time to start a fire, so a small space heater it was and the higher electric bill to go with. Especially as she left it running for the fat fuzzy feline during the day while she was at her job. The house didn’t have good enough wiring to let her hook up more than one. Maybe on her way home tonight (if Dr Slenderman didn’t go making her feel too sick again) she could find a better heater? Her pay was every couple weeks and as she was spending more of her time at work than at home, even on her days off often one of the others would end up giving her a little extra work, there was little in her home. A few snacks, pet food. Leena was only in the place to feed the cat and sleep at night.

She looked around the house as she finished dressing and got herself a soda out of the frig and a bowl of slightly stale cereal, with about to go off milk. The kitchen wasn’t much, a stove, some utility shelves that held a few pans and her little collection of tea, cocoa and instant coffee. A sink currently overflowing with dishes in bad need of washing (and no dishwasher to do it for her, so it just sort of piled up until her next day off) a small cabinet by the sink she stored her plates and cups in, and on the counter was a toaster and the drying rack for the dishes. A small folding table she had a microwave on and next to it a crock pot slow cooker gathering dust.

The livingroom was fairly bare with only a single low couch, with handmade crochet blankets that Leena had no memory of where they came from. A television with a couple game systems. Neither of which Leena felt ‘belonged’ to her. Though she did play on her days off, or used the playstation as a way of watching movies. A scratching post for the cat (who seemed more determined to destroy the couch instead) and a couple random cat toys.

She finished her breakfast, what there was of it anyway. She could have gotten something in the drive thru on the way, but last time she did that resulted in a 20 minute lecture about her health from Edge. Followed by another 10 minutes by Papyrus, and likely would have been a third from Blue but she managed to distract him asking about his latest project. By which point Gaster was rather tired of it all and spirited her away to his lab so he could get some work done.

Shoving her feet into her slip on canvas shoes she grabbed her purse and keys. Checking her phone for the weather she decided to grab a coat and small pocket umbrella.

-0-

When she walked into the manor that morning, she felt like the guy from the meme image she’d seen online. Holding pizzas and coming into the room with a whole bunch of crazy things going on at once.

Stretch was trying to get his brother off the wall, which Blue had somehow managed to climb with nothing but sheer force of will alone apparently. Fell was checking what looked like might possibly be a new crack in his brother’s skull, the other skeleton seated on the floor surrounded by broken, stuff. Sans was watching from the upper floor rail, leaning his head into one palm elbows on the rail.  Papyrus was trying to explain something to Gaster, who looked about as lost as Leena felt at the moment.

She almost took a couple steps back and out of the house before Gaster saw her and hurried over.

“Leena” he seldom called her only by her first name, and looked incredibly flustered “We ended up with a bit of an accident this morning with Blue,” he sighed and ran long fingers over his skull glancing back into the chaos. Stretch had a hold of his brother and was currently sitting on him, Sans had come down the steps and was patting a distraught looking Papyrus on the shoulder. Edge was waving off his brother’s concern but he kept falling back down every time he tried to stand.

Gaster looking back at her “I am going to be rather busy this morning it looks like, so Ms Leena, if you would, just, hang out today and if I can’t think of anything in need of your services this afternoon, you can likely call it an early day.” He told her and strode a couple steps back to Fell and Edge, helping to lift the taller skeleton and hurry him down the hall to his own lab, likely to patch him up.

So she was left standing there for a few confused moments when she suddenly heard an “OH SHIT!”

“HUUUUUMAN!” Leena registered bright lit up eyes right before she was tackled in the middle by a very hyper Blue “IfoundthisawesomestashIevensavedyouapiece!” and before she could so much as get a word out, or even figure out what he had just said she was picked up and he took off down the hallway before his brother could catch the two of them.

Stretch just sort of stood there feeling a bit stunned, “… oh stars…” he breathed, this was so not good.

Sans just sort of laughed “Well, hopefully she can keep him occupied for a bit.” He shrugged.

“Oh yes, my hyper brother on a sugar rush when his already compromised thinking abilities are firing on adrenaline and instinct.” He said giving Sans a sour look “And he’s your age, with the same needs and desires.” He added.

Now Sans looked a bit concerned “Well, I guess we’ll help you look for him then. Right Paps?”

The other nodded adjusting his brightly colored t-shirt “It’s my fault he found one of Gaster’s junk food caches.”

Stretch waved him off “He was bound to find one of them eventually, let alone if he ever successfully discovered Gaster’s chocolate stash.”

Sans chuckled “I think we all want a piece of that horde.” He headed off the opposite direction that Blue had ran off in disappearing.

Papyrus stood up and adjusted his scarf “Don’t worry! I the Great Papyrus will find your brother and our missing Damsel!” And he ran off after Blue’s last know trajectory.

Stretch fished about his pockets and pulled out one of his lollipops, he was going to be needing something stronger, but that would wait until after he got his brother back. “Motherfucking STARS!” he muttered and dropped a couple bucks into the swear jar on his way down the hall to find his brother and his ‘captive’.  

Leena was not at all sure how they ended up outside in the work shed. Did they vibrate through a wall or something without her noticing? Can he do that weird ‘disappear into thin air’ thing she’d seen Fell do, usually after dropping her and her car off when he had to walk back?

But she barely had time to register being dropped on an impromptu throne that had been put together with cushions and stacked wooden pallets. It was just big enough for both of them to sit comfortably. Leena blinked as she found her lap slowly being filled with various junk food, most of it was chips or jerky, stuff that wasn’t necessarily the sugar that Blue had likely already devoured with how he was about to vibrate himself through the center of the planet she was sure.

“Thanks,” she managed and wondered how many stashes he actually found, because there was a LOT of junk food. Several month’s supply for herself. Which begged the question, just how many stashes did Gaster have around that house? Apparently enough to fuel his addiction through the apocalypse if her soon to vanish lap space was anything to go by.

She did open one bag of cheetos and munched on them while she contemplated what to do. Blue was bouncing full of energy and showing her various half cobbled ideas that he thought was brilliant at the moment. He was even using tools and bits of things in the shed to put together a scale model of why his plan was brilliant and would work.

Leena licked her fingers clean of fake orange cheese powder and started stacking the rest of the snack food to the side. She was trying to figure out how to calm him down, because while still animated he was having trouble focusing and she could see it. How he would pause suddenly and stare at what he was doing before starting over. Often with a completely different train of thought.

He was also starting to get frustrated. Leena began humming, something she heard on the radio on her way to work, trying to think herself about what to do. She noticed how Blue seemed to start to slow down and sway with her hummed tune.

Well music helped her focus, so why not? She shifted from humming to softly singing, mostly because she was pretty convinced she sucked at it, but he didn’t seem to care if her voice cracked or if she forgot words. Leena just filled in the bits she couldn’t remember with random sounds just to keep the flow of the music as he did seem to calm and grew even calmer. Well, he was still hyper but he stopped talking.

He turned and grabbed her hands “Let’s dance!” he pulled her around the shed floor. It wasn’t really a dance as more of just skipping about like a pair of kids, but he enjoyed it and she giggled. Going through several tunes, starting with a few she knew that had lots of energy, then slowly easing to slower and slower tunes. Her voice felt overused and tired by the time she managed to get him to just snuggle up beside her on the pallets, the two of them sitting there.

He was too wired to sleep, and still seemed to literately vibrate under her touch. There was a soft rattling sound, was he... rattling his bones? Leena decided it was just the cutest thing ever.

“Leena?” she stopped and looked down, the couple months she’d been working under Gaster she could count the number of times Blue called her by her name on one hand and not just ‘Human’ and still have fingers to spare.

“Yeah Blue?” she responded looking down at him.

“why is it so… hard to think?”

She paused, well that was, out of the blue. (she had to tell Stretch that one, he’d get a kick out of it) “Well I don’t know how much sugar you have had this morning, but if its anything resembling this pile of junk food here, you can likely power a 3rd world nation.” She said with amusement.

“no” he said softly “… I… I can’t think, I know it’s not always been this way… I use to… to…” he groaned holding his head and face turning down further into her lap. Leena paused concerned; this was way more than him being silly.

“Shhh” she ran her fingers soothingly down his back, the lighter material of his shirt hardly padding the ridges of his spine and outline of bones. But the slow back and forth she did seemed to comfort him and he relaxed “take a breath, it’s ok.”

“it’s not ok” he responded “it’s like, there are dozens of radios on in my head and most of them are conflicting static!” he finally huffed out. “but… when I’m with you, most of them fade and its… easier.”

Leena was actually a little flattered, “I’m glad I can help Blue.” She said shifting to half curl up with him, he turned to bury his face against her stomach and sighed, he was still rattling, just, too much energy but he didn’t seem to want to leave the little bubble that Leena seemed to have created for him.

When the others found her finally, Blue had fallen into a trance, if not a full sleep. Leena wasn’t sure since his eye sockets were just dark but the boney eyelids were not closed.

Stretch came rushing in and looked surprised to find them both alright, then relieved. He knelt down by them and touched his brother, “Sugar shock,” he said with concern “he’ll likely pass out completely in a few moments when he crashes.” He told her. “He’s going to be pretty sick when he wakes up.”

“So, he’s done this before?” she asked him.

He sighed “Every damn time he finds too many sweets.” Stretch rubbed his face with a boney hand “he never seems to learn.”

“Impulse control seems to be a problem.” She admitted to him.

He laughed “he didn’t hurt you?” he asked her.

Leena shook her head “he wanted to give me half the stash he found” she indicated the chips and other junkfood which Stretch looked pretty impressed with “and after talking about some contraption or another at high speed for a bit then he wanted to dance.”

Stretch seemed to relax completely and shook his head chuckling “Aw bro, you’re too cute for your own good.” He said as he picked his brother up and cradled him like a child against his shoulder. “Thanks for humoring him.”

Leena shrugged and smiled “it’s alright, I don’t mind. Not like I was doing anything else today.” She could see Papyrus and Sans outside the shed. They both seemed relieved as well. Just what had they been afraid of Blue doing? So far he was like her best friend in this place, or well, anywhere at the moment. That she could remember, she had her own brief moment of confusion. That wasn’t right… was it?

Stretch left with his brother and the other two came in to check on her. Sans was looking at the impressive pile of snack foods “What you plan on doing with all this?”

She shook her head “Geeze, I’d be eating on this for months if I took it, does anyone else have any weird reactions to this stuff?” she asked.

Papyrus shook his head “It’s only Blue that has the adverse reactions towards too much sugar.”

“What happened? I mean I got some of it, but...” she trailed off looking at the pair of brothers. Papyrus was finding a bag to help load the junkfood into, he eventually found one that looked like it was what Blue used to bring the snack foods to the shed in the first place.

“Eh, well he found one of Gaster’s stashes this morning, one of the larger ones apparently.” Sans cast his eyes over at the stack his brother was carefully bagging up. “He was already well on his way to bending time and space on sugar fueled energy alone when Edge tried to contain him for Stretch to grab and take somewhere safe until he calmed down a bit. Somehow Blue managed to bury him in dishes, bowls, whatever he could get his hands on really. Well, one thing led to another before Edge ended up taking a nose dive and cracked his skull, Fell was about to attempt to murder Blue, and once we stopped him from trying that Stretch was attempting to get him off the ceiling when you walked in, and well, you know the rest.” He summed up with a careless shrug.

There were so many empty spots in this story, but it at least explained a few things. “Can’t the Doctor keep his junkfood locked up in one place?” she muttered with a sigh.

Sans laughed “if he did, every time one of us was munchie we’d go raiding it. He’s rather protective of that horde of his.”  

She gave him a dirty look, like this was his entire fault. Well, not just him anyway. Admittedly, if Leena ever found Gaster’s chocolate stash she was going to be just as bad as the rest of the guys in running off with it.

She might not even share long as no one caught her with it anyway.

Sorted out they went back inside. She stole another bag of chips from the horde and the guys took the bag off to the kitchen for lack of a better place to put it for now. Sitting on the couch she debated on what was best to do. She saw Fell pass by and he didn’t seem too upset so Edge must be alright.

Leena thought about it and since the time was getting on towards lunch she went to the kitchen to make a few sandwiches. What started as ‘just a quick thing’ turned into a full on grilled cheese with ham and bacon. Which the scent of brought others into the kitchen and nabbing food (along with bags of chips) on their way through. She managed to keep a couple aside and eating one she made her way first up to the bedrooms, glad when she tapped on the door to Stretch’s room she had the right room. He looked tired but she held up a paper plate with a sandwich on it.

“Angel, you are a life saver.” He practically crooned and took the offered food. She heard something crash on the other side and figured Blue wasn’t done with his rush yet. Then she made her way down to the lab to find Gaster deep in some project or another. He glanced up as she set the plate beside him.

“Lunch time already?” he said picking up half the sandwich and taking a bite.

“Where’s Edge at?” she asked “Is he alright?”

“He’s fine, a new crack to add to his collection, but I was able to mostly fix it. I offered to fill in the damage, but he seems to like the aesthetic appeal of it so if it gets worse it’s his own damn fault.” He said with an expressive eye roll of the lights in his sockets. “He’s in his room. I ordered him to at least rest for the day.”

Leenah nodded “Do you need me?”

“Not right now, I still have all this data from the other day to review.” He said “It is looking less and less like you will be needed today”

She nodded and saw he was already back into his work, but at least still eating.

So back up the stair Leena trudged, glad for the moment that Gaster had been so particular about making sure she was ‘up to standards’ in her health. She had the extra sandwich and thoughts of escaping to town. Maybe do some shopping, she could stand new shoes, some underwear. A bit of food for herself, and maybe a new toy for the cat?

She reached Edge’s room and gave a slight knock.

“If that is you again brother, and you didn’t come with something for this headache go the fuck away!” she heard snapped irritably from the other side. Leena paused, she and Edge really didn’t talk much, they tended to avoid each other for the most part. Yeah, he did a few nice things for her now and then, but she hadn’t done much at all for him in the past.

Would he think this was out of character? Would he yell at her?

She carefully shifted the door open enough to peek in and paused. His room was fairly dark and from what she could see, very simply decorated. She’d seen Fell’s room a couple times and that was a cluttered magpie’s nest of trash and semi organized chaos. This was the opposite, it was clean, austere. Even Papyrus and Blue’s rooms had stuff! Action figured and blue prints. Neat and organized but, things.

This felt so, empty. There was a desk and chair, a bed without even a headboard, just a Hollywood bed frame. A dresser, his closet was opened and she could see the lines of neatly hung clothing. He noticed the light from the door and turned his head like he would yell, but grabbed his head like it bothered him cursing softly.

Then he squinted “Human? What in the delta are you doing here?”

She carefully held up the plate with the remaining sandwich on it “I thought you would like some lunch” she offered.

He seemed to stare at her, as if he didn’t comprehend what she said for a long moment. Finally he held his hand out in a commanding gesture which she took to mean ‘give it to me then’. So Leena walked into the room and when close enough held out the plate to him. He grabbed it and brought it close.

“… it’s cold”

“I went down to the lab first, I didn’t know you been moved up here already.” She responded.

He seemed to contemplate this for a moment before he picked up the food and took a bite. Careful chewing before he commented “it is, adequate.”  He said and it weirdly felt like high praise.

He was dressed down, satin looking pants with a long tank top. Possibly what he wears to bed then? Both were the sort of faded black that comes from many washings and long use. He ate the food and after a moment offered back the empty paper plate.

“I hope you feel better, I could bring you some pain medication if you still want it?” she asked him

“… no, I must have just been hungry.” He sat back on his bed with a lamp light on and pulled out a book. She caught something about puzzles. “You may leave now.”

“um, alright…” she paused a second by the door “I’m going into town, I likely won’t be back until tomorrow, I could… pick up something for you?”

“Saffron.” He half snapped from behind the book “I’m out.”

“Alright.” and she left him.

-0-

Leena was at the market, and one of the shops she remembered, she KNEW had been here… was just gone. Not even a ‘moved’ or something it was as if it never existed, there was a blank wall where it once was.

She remembered seeing many times a little shop of tea and spices, she thought it would be a good place to pick up the requested spice for Edge.

Leena held up her camera and took a shot. She forwarded it to Fell. It wasn’t long before she got a surly response of why she sent him a blank wall.

 _I remember a shop here. not here anymore._ She tapped back.

 _Thnx_  she got back and pocketed her phone heading off to find somewhere else she could find saffron. Likely end up at the grocery, but she did at least try to find it elsewhere first!

In her hunting for spices she did find a new German bakery, which she bought some bread at and took a picture of her eating a crumbly pastry in front of to send off to Fell, who sent back a complaint about her not sharing. She grinned, ok, teasing him was fun, she was going to have to do this more often.

-0-

The next morning Leena popped into the kitchen and Edge was there doing the dishes. By hand, even though they owned a dishwasher. She reached into her pocket and slipped the little jar of saffron she had finally found up onto the counter. He blinked down, long rubber gloves up to his elbows and arms sunk into the sink.

“What’s this?” he demanded.

“The Saffron you asked for.” She responded.

“.. Its not Spanish” he stated.

Leena paused and started to take it back but his wet gloved hand snapped out and grabbed it before her and he tucked it up on his spice rack “It will do for now.”

She rolled her eyes with a bit of amusement “Yeah well I couldn’t find a proper spice store, the one I was going to go to wasn’t there anymore.”

He paused and looked at her out of the corner of his eye socket, or at least it was the impression she had the slight tilt of his head as if he was considering her words.

“Did you try the one down at the Market?”

“Spice World? Yep, it’s gone dude.” She made a hand motion like it exploded or puffed away like smoke “I told Fell about it, he said he was going to make a note.”

Edge made a hum sound and then she found herself with a towel tossed at her “If you are going to stand around then make yourself useful and dry these!”

As it seemed in keeping with his strangely abrupt mannerisms she sighed and grabbed a plate from the dish rack and started to make sure it was clean and dry before putting it away. Edge didn’t talk to her, other than to tell her where to put something she wasn’t familiar with. Plates, silverware, and glasses? That was easy, but the odd silver flat thing with a spiral bit of wire on the other side? (Apparently it was a cocktail strainer) went in the little drawer by the wine rack, and the white tea cups with the rose patterns went in the cupboard with the nice china, not in the one with the common serving ware that everyone broke regularly. When the last dish was washed and dried he shooed her out so he could sweep and mop.

Which ended up the best timing because Gaster came up out of the lab looking irritated until he saw her, “Ms Leena! Where have you been?”

“Sorry, I brought up something Edge asked for and then he asked me to help him with dishes.” She stated with a shrug.

“Asked?” Gaster sounded very doubtful of that one really.

She grinned “in his way” she really did have the feeling that if she had just walked away it wouldn’t have bothered him. Gaster rolled his eyes.

“Fine, but hurry, I have been needing you for this experiment all morning!” he started back down the hall to his lab and she trotted as fast as she could after. It ended up being one of the experiments that needed her to dress down in a gown while he took various measurements with different machines.

Holding it closed in back she carefully got up on the table. It was like a doctor visit, just, way more invasive and exposed. Last time he did this just about everyone had chosen that moment to come down and ask various things of Gaster, which left Leena feeling incredibly exposed.

“Well let’s hope we don’t get the circus we got last time we did this one.” She said with a touch of humor to her voice.

Gaster paused, thought about it and went and locked the door to his lab “Actually, that nearly threw off my readings you were much too stressed out, so let us not repeat that fiasco.” He responded.

“Soooo,” she paused as he came over checking machinery to make sure it was going to give him correct readings with his baselines.

“We repeat this one fairly often.” She finished when he had only raised a brow at her in question.

“Partly because I need to make sure you continue to be what I need for these experiments. If your values flux too much off the range I need then I will no longer be able to use you at all.” He told her bluntly.

“… so I’d lose my job?” she asked. Wow, talk about out of one’s control! She didn’t know why it feel, depressed? Lonely? She wasn’t sure, but even with things like the blue grossness, she actually rather liked this job. It was different, her employers were nice, it had pizza night! The pay was really good.

He blinked at looked at her, as if he heard something in her voice and setting down his clip board he came over and took up her hand in one of his. “Ms. Leena, while you might end up not suitable as a test subject it does not mean you still won’t have value, it just means your job description would end up changing” he shrugs and gave her a half smile “Think of it more as, a promotion.”

Well, a promotion? Ok, she could put up with that then. “What would I do then?”

He let go of her hand and went back to his readings, tapping one of the screens and checking off his list before he set the clipboard aside “Well I would likely train you to be my lab assistant, you are patient, and observant. Certainly bright enough.” He told her.

She blinked, from a test subject to a lab assistant? How much of a pay grade increase would that be? “For right now” he continued “This works rather well and is good that you do not ask unnecessary questions. As knowing too much can throw off readings, now, lay back.” He told her.

She wondered how that would be, would it be like the disappointment Fell had when she told him that she knew about buildings just, disappearing?

Gaster brought over various devices, taking readings, small samples of skin and blood and saliva. “We’ll just do a physical as well while we have you here.” He told her “Make sure we do not need to make any further adjustments for your health.”

She gave a nod, as she really would rather not end up as she was, sick all the time, tired, hardly able to think. She had been in bad shape and not sure how long she had been surviving without work. Leena was fairly close to being kicked out of her lease when she had stumbled upon the copy of the employment ad while cruising for something she felt she might be able to do with her poor health.

It had been the fishiest ad she’d ever seen but it also had been local and she only needed to have shown up for the interview, no one seeing that she hadn’t worked in years and had very little experience in the job market for her age.

It had, well seemed like a possible life saver and, well, if it had been the more the sex worker route it had sounded she rather doubted that anyone would find her sexy enough to even bother with. It had still been nice to have the at the time freaky looking skeleton Dr assuring her that _that_ was most certainly _not_  in her expected duties.

As it was, she worked for a bunch of skeletons? Despite all of Fell’s flirting she rather doubted that they would be actually interested in a fleshy creature like her.  She’d seen Blue when he went tearing down a hall with his pants on his head and laughing at his brother, who had been orange as a carrot and chasing after him.

Yeah, they were all bone.

Readings done Gaster did a simple set of medical tests. Making sure her reactions where good, checking all the usual stuff for a physical. A few more samples to run a different set of tests on. Then they were done “Get dressed and drink this, I suggest laying off junk food and getting more iron in your system for now, your blood color was a bit weak.”

She laughed “I’ll lay off the junk food when you do” she teased.

“hey!” he actually seemed to puff at her, pouting at her! She was fighting not to start laughing. “Now I’m a skeleton! Not like I have to worry about putting on weight!” he chastised her.

“Uh-huh, tell that to Fell, I am pretty sure he has managed to.”

Gaster rolled his eyes “Do not even begin to start with him, his diet is atrociously all over the place. Sans is no better. I’ve been after both of them to improve their diets and get more calcium.”

“Makes strong bones?” she quoted and he chuckled ruffling her hair as he turned and went back to his desk giving her privacy to put on her clothing again. “Need anything else today?”

“Once the tests come back, I will know how we shall continue.” He told her “So, since you spent most the morning with Edge, I will likely have to put off any further testing until tomorrow.” He grumbled.

Leena chuckled “Sorry boss”

He shook his head “it’s not your fault, I am glad that you are getting along with the others. Especially Fell and Edge, neither of them… make friends easily.” He said after a long pause just shy of awkward.

She tilted her head, she could definitely see how the pair would have a difficult time of it. Even Blue with his high energy was open and friendly which made him a joy to be around, and for all Sans kept to himself he still tended to come across as nice. Fell was crude, rude, and gave no shit. Then his brother Edge was stand offish, prickly and did not care for anyone but very possibly his brother, which was admittedly hard to tell sometimes.  She brushed her hair out with her fingers and stuffed her feet back into her shoes. Going around to his desk as he was slowly losing himself back into his findings.

“Need anything else then?”

He waved her off “No no, as I said, by the time all the test results come back it will most likely be time for you to go home. So, take the day. If you are really bored, see if the others could use your help.” He told her. Leena nodded and stole his bag of chips much to his grumbling but he just pulled out a new bag from his cubby.

Laughing she unlocked the lab door and opened it up, Sans was actually standing outside, hand raised to knock.

“Oh hey” she said stepping back to let him in.

He chuckled stuffing hands into the pockets of his blue coat. “Eh, nothing big I was actually just coming to see if I could barrow you. I need another set of eyes for comparing some numbers and Edge has gotten obsessed that the pantry needs reorganizing.

She blinked “Last I saw him he was mopping.”

“Apparently he decided that bag of junkfood we commandeered needed to have proper places, and well. Yeaaaaah that guy more than a little OCD,” he gave a helpless shrug. “So, usual bonus?”

She nodded “Sure.” And followed the other skeleton out and on up to his own lab which was up on the top floor in what was a widow’s walk. There was a telescope on the porch surrounding it. A few tables covered in papers, in fact she wasn’t even able to see the wallpaper very well as everything was covered in paper tacked up with strings connecting them, or ink lines.

"You're being an astronaut, kiddo."

"Huh?" Leena blinked at Sans startled out of her thoughts and realized she was still standing next to the window. There was quite a view, one could see the whole town from his window. Buildings laid out until it reached the port at the other end.

"You're really spacing out on me."

She snorted as she tried strangle a laugh before it came, and his grin got big. Oh shit.

"You know, with all the math you're helping me with, I'd tell you a math pun but I have a feeling you'd figure it out before I got to the punch line."

Oh god, save her. She covered her mouth trying not to encourage him but from the twinkle that came to his eye she knew she was doomed.

"There's quick a positive reaction, I'd call it a plus kiddo. Sure hope my jokes don't subtract from your good mood." Could he smirk any wider? Apparently not, as her shoulders shook.

"Why don't atheists like exponents? They don't believe in higher powers."

Leena sat down howling and Sans chuckled to himself as he gathered up the papers. He dropped them on her lap “here ya go kiddo, just compare the sheets with the same numbers and circle any differences you spot.” He told her.

She wiped tears from her eyes “You are a bastard” she accused.

He just chuckled at her with a wink and sat down on the floor staring up at the wall as if trying to figure out something from all the myriad of notes, pages, and bits of yarn he was tying it all together with.

It was a quiet afternoon that was passing as Sans moved around the room and Leena quietly compared printouts of paper checking that everything matched. She found herself wanting to check the math as well, but these were all equations that went beyond her high school education. She was halfway through the sheets when a hand touched her shoulder and she looked up. Sans was there holding a cup of coffee out to her.

She accepted it and leaned back, stretching her back with a pop as she realized she been in a single place too long and could no longer feet her feet at all for the moment.

It was also getting dark outside. “Sorry I kept you a bit late.” He told her. “But you helped a lot.”

“I wish I could do more,” she admitted “but this is all really fancy math and I don’t know a thing about it.”

“Don’t worry about it” he said and with the touch of accent he had sounded a bit more like ‘dun worry abu’ dat’. “We got enough eyes here to spot the math,” he told her “but not many with the patients just to compare lists. Fell could, but he got his own lists he’s comparing.” He shrugged.

“What about Stretch?” Sans waved it off picking up a second cup of coffee from the small pot he kept balanced precariously on a pile of messy papers and books.

“Between his own work and his brother, he got his hands full enough.” He said with a sigh. “So, guess that just leaves me you kiddo.” He winked. “Unless that fishy scam ad lures in another catch like you. Then maybe we can keep them before Gaster steals them away again.” He chuckled.

She shifted so she could stretch out her legs, trying to get feeling back before she attempted to stand.

“What’s your plans for the evening?”

She shrugged “Likely going to get a burrito or someone on the way home and cuddle the cat with Netflix.”

“you could stay for dinner” he told her “Late as it is I bet Edge has cooked extra.”

She thought about it, likely whatever Edge made would be miles above whatever she could pick up on the way home. “Well, if he will put up with me, then sure.”

Sans chuckled "Kiddo, he more than puts up with you. You could really piss him off if you fried, but the fact that he has yet to kill you, or go bacon a bone, or worse, speaks volumes. That, and he's pretty flour when people don't eat his food and they were told they could stay."

She started snorting through her giggles “STOP STOP!!!” she begged, her sides hurt “Spare me!” Leenah had gotten to her feet during his tirade of bad puns, so when his grin grew to evil levels she darted forward and much as she would do with Stretch when he looked like he was going to attempt to tease her to death, she covered his teeth with her hands “No.”

Eyes merry he watched her as she pulled back and just as she backed up out of range he spoke again "Aww, you're killing me kid! I was just starting to measure up to the task! My jokes are eggcellent, I'll have you know! They really crack people up! I can whisk anyone into a frenzy, dont'cha know? I'll give people a real punderful thyme."

“ARG!!” and she fled the room from his laughter.

 


End file.
